


Wings

by iknowhowmystoryends (gorgeouschaos), sams_spirit_halloween_wig



Series: ink [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, If Supernatural (TV) Were on HBO, M/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28049316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgeouschaos/pseuds/iknowhowmystoryends, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sams_spirit_halloween_wig/pseuds/sams_spirit_halloween_wig
Summary: Dean gets the wings done when he’s twenty-two and stupid.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: ink [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053926
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49





	Wings

**Author's Note:**

> So my new favorite person sams_spirit_halloween_wig and I are writing a series of tattoo fics set in an hbo spn universe. This is the first one.  
> The second section is when Cas dies at the end of season twelve; the third is after the Empty takes Cas.  
> Thanks for reading, hope you like it, and we love feedback :)

Dean gets the wings done when he’s twenty-two and stupid. It costs more than he has to give, but he scrapes together the money Sam threw back in his face and his savings from the odd jobs he’s worked and the money Bobby sent for his birthday and takes a week to get a full back tattoo from an artist who should be somewhere better.

Why Dean picks wings, he couldn’t say. Maybe he’s got some idea about redemption in his head. Maybe it’s the anniversary of his mother’s death. Maybe he’s drunk. 

(Much, much later, Dean will find his choice either hilarious or depressing, depending on the day.)

The first time Sam sees Dean shirtless in four years, they’re somewhere between California and Colorado, and Sam starts laughing. It’s a bitter laugh, but it’s also the first noise he’s made since Jess burned, so Dean will take it.

“You? Angel wings?”

Dean grins and flexes his shoulder blades. “What’s the matter, Sammy? Jealous you didn’t think of it first?”

Sam strips out of his flannel, pulls his shirt over his head. There are jagged wings on his pectorals, the feathers rough where Dean’s are sleek.

“Great minds,” Dean says, reaching for a shirt because he can’t ask,  _ God, you still believe in angels, Sammy? _

“Yeah,” Sam says, watching the wings flex as they disappear because he can’t ask, _ God, you ever believed in anything, Dean? _

Dean thinks about getting the wings redone after Hell. Thinks about things like salvation and mercy all the way to Pamela’s house.

Then Dean sees Cas’ wings and knows that nothing any tattoo artist could do would make him feel the way they do: a little awed, a lot scared, even more angry. 

//

Cas dies in Dean’s arms. His last words are, “Let go of me, Dean.”

“Never,” Dean tells him. “You hear me? Never.”

Cas dies in Dean’s arms, and Dean can’t help but scream as Cas’ wings sear into him.

Cas dies in Dean’s arms, and Dean strips off his shirt and lets Sam look at for nonexistent burns, and Dean’s left with nothing but Cas’ son and the imprints of angel wings wrapping his torso. 

//

Cas dies in front of Dean and Dean doesn’t even have the burns this time, just an  _ I love you  _ that means everything but nothing without Cas. 

After Jack brings everyone but who mattered back, Dean walks into the only tattoo parlor in Lebanon and gets  _ we are real  _ tattooed in the space between the edges of the wings. 

“Nice work,” the tattoo artist says, tapping a wing. Dean startles. “Who did it?”

_ I loved him,  _ Dean almost says, almost confesses his best-kept secret to this human woman with no idea what it’s like to love an angel, almost tells his darkest truth to this woman with a wedding ring and calloused fingers and professional detachment in her eyes.

“He’s dead now,” is what Dean says. 

“Shame.”

“Yeah,” Dean manages. “Yeah, it is.”

The burning of the needle isn’t enough, isn’t the fire of Grace burning into his skin, but it’s what Dean has.

The nail goes through the center of the still-wrapped tattoo. 


End file.
